The United States has quietly taken on the huge task of trying to organize regional ballistic missile defense networks, not only among NATO countries but also among nations in East Asia and the Middle East.

The United States is “leading from in front” on meeting possible future missile threats from North Korea and Iran, whether to the homeland, allies or U.S. troops stationed abroad.

The task in some areas involves trying to get old enemies, such as Japan and South Korea, to work together. Or harder still, seeing whether Turkey, Jordan, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the other Persian Gulf states will join in a common defense system.

Thirty years ago this week, President Ronald Reagan unveiled his unachievable “Star Wars” program to protect against a surprise attack of thousands of Soviet nuclear warheads.

Today, there remains an annual U.S. missile defense program that costs $8 billion or more and keeps a minimal antiballistic missile system to protect the homeland. It also works on developing new ABM technology and can confront perhaps dozens of intermediate and long-range missiles.

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Is North Korea serious about war?

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Following a threat to launch a nuclear attack on the United States, North Korea’s state news arm released dozens of photos that show the country’s army and navy performing military drills. Images here are from KCNA and the North’s Rodong Sinmun newspaper, and distributed via Western news agencies.

Caption

Following a threat to launch a nuclear attack on the United States, North Korea’s state news arm, the Korean Central News Agency (also known as KCNA) released dozens of photos that show the country’s army and navy performing military drills, many of which were attended by leader Kim Jong Eun. Note: The KCNA has a history of digitally altering images it distributes. Because of North Korean government restrictions, news services that distribute them and The Washington Post cannot verify these images.

Members of the Worker-Peasant Red Guards attend military training in this image released March 13.Korean Central News Agency via Reuters

On March 15, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced the future deployment of 14 additional ground-based interceptors at Fort Greely, Alaska, the site of 30 deployed GBIs. Along with four other GBIs at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, that represents the entire U.S. homeland-based force arrayed against intercontinental ballistic missiles. The United States has early warning radars around the globe and in space and a command-and-control architecture that links all elements of the system.

What is the United States doing in the rest of the world?

The best summary is in the transcript of a session on “The United States and Global Missile Defense,” held by the bipartisan Atlantic Council on March 12.

James Miller, undersecretary of defense for policy, said U.S. concern about North Korea was its “potential ICBM capability . . . compounded by the regime’s focus on developing nuclear weapons.” He described Iran’s “continued efforts to develop nuclear capabilities and long-range ballistic missiles . . . [as] not as advanced as those of North Korea.”

Retired Gen. Walter Sharp, former head of the U.S. and Republic of Korea Combined Command, said North Korea had more than 800 missiles — all of which could hit South Korea. Most could hit Japan, some the United States, Australia and other countries.

Miller noted, “The United States forward-deploys Patriot Advanced Capability 3, or PAC-3, batteries in South Korea to defend U.S. and South Korean forces,” adding that South Korea is enhancing its own program.

The country is building a complex system with ground and sea-based interceptors, radars and command-and-control systems.

Sharp said intelligence-sharing and cooperation between the United States, South Korea and Japan is critical. However, he added, “The Republic of Korea needs to understand it is to their detriment that there’s not an intelligence-sharing relationship between South Korea and Japan.”

■Tehran has the Shahab-3 medium-range ballistic missile and a modified version with a claimed range of about 1,200 miles.

Retired Vice Adm. Kevin Cosgriff, a former commander of U.S. naval forces in the gulf and now with Textron Systems, said, “From the threat point of view, it means that a coastal-launched short-range ballistic missile from Iran can range Riyadh [Saudi Arabia].”

■With U.S. cooperation, Israel has developed the Iron Dome anti-rocket system and David’s Sling and Arrow 3, anti-missile systems. In addition, since the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Israel has had the U.S. Patriot anti-missile system. The United States also has placed an X-band radar in the Negev Desert to give better coverage of Iran.

●The U.S. plan to meet the Iran threat to Europe is well known. It has been integrated into the NATO missile defense program but has individual elements. For example, Miller said NATO’s layered theater ballistic missile defense has reached an interim operating capability and evolve toward full capability between 2018 and 2020.

In 2015, the United States would establish the Aegis Ashore interceptors in Romania and more in Poland in 2018, with four missile defense Aegis ships moving to Rota, Spain.

With the United States leading all this missile defense activity, Cosgriff raised a concern worth considering: “the integration of different systems into a coherent missile defense architecture that also involve[s] different countries.”

Those countries “really don’t have a culture of deep military collaboration; in fact, in some instances, just the opposite.”

Cosgriff rightfully warned: “This is going to take time. And the indispensable reality of the current approach is that the United States of America is the integrating agent of all these countries.”

Walter Pincus reported on intelligence, defense and foreign policy for The Washington Post. He first came to the paper in 1966 and has covered numerous subjects, including nuclear weapons and arms control, politics and congressional investigations. He was among Post reporters awarded the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting.

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